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Also, the best place to fight metal slimes other than if you want the kings is the plateau directly northeast of Angel Falls (you have to be post-game). That place is awesome, you get fights with shit like 5 liquid metal slimes. One time I got a fight with 4 liquid metals and 3 medleys, and only missed one of each. In general it's way nicer too because even if you're rarely able to kill all the slimes that show up you usually get at least one or two. Not to mention it's like on top of a town instead of in a crappy dungeon somewhere.

Are you talking about the place with a bunch of normal slimes and king slimes, with a cave? I wasn't there long enough to see if there were metals.

Slime Hill, every metal except Kings. Pity that, all things considered. Might give it a try instead of the Bowhole.

Also, the best place to fight metal slimes other than if you want the kings is the plateau directly northeast of Angel Falls (you have to be post-game). That place is awesome, you get fights with shit like 5 liquid metal slimes. One time I got a fight with 4 liquid metals and 3 medleys, and only missed one of each. In general it's way nicer too because even if you're rarely able to kill all the slimes that show up you usually get at least one or two. Not to mention it's like on top of a town instead of in a crappy dungeon somewhere.

Are you talking about the place with a bunch of normal slimes and king slimes, with a cave? I wasn't there long enough to see if there were metals.

Slime Hill, every metal except Kings. Pity that, all things considered. Might give it a try instead of the Bowhole.

Let me know your results. I've been using Bowhole pretty much exclusively for grinding LMS's, not too bad, but i'd like a place with a higher LMS spawn rate.

Only my hero character has Egg on. He can't cast it on himself, but he's my Warrior, can I never complete the Egg On Dragon Slash quest?

There is no Egg On Dragon Slash quest. There's an Egg On quest (use Egg On to get an ally to 100 Tension 5 times) and there's a Dragon Slash Quest (use Dragon Slash at 100 Tension to kill a Slime 3 times) but you can just Psyche Up (16 Points in Martial Artist skill tree) to do that one. Anyone you want to be a damage dealer should really spend the 12 levels in Martial Artist to get Psyche Up, honestly. Tension is hugely overpowered, with 100 Tension doing something like 7.5 times the damage.

Beat the guy gaurding the gate eaisly but the cat guy with the sword? One hit kills me, any help here?

I'd say you were unlucky with his hits the first time, seems like all the bosses near the end of the game can crit and instantly kill anyone under level 45 or so. If it's not a critical that's killing you, you might just need to level up, or improve your strategy (use Buff and other personal stat gains).

You did, uh...

...put your equipment back on and go get the rest of your party again, right?

Also, the best place to fight metal slimes other than if you want the kings is the plateau directly northeast of Angel Falls (you have to be post-game). That place is awesome, you get fights with shit like 5 liquid metal slimes. One time I got a fight with 4 liquid metals and 3 medleys, and only missed one of each. In general it's way nicer too because even if you're rarely able to kill all the slimes that show up you usually get at least one or two. Not to mention it's like on top of a town instead of in a crappy dungeon somewhere.

Are you talking about the place with a bunch of normal slimes and king slimes, with a cave? I wasn't there long enough to see if there were metals.

Slime Hill, every metal except Kings. Pity that, all things considered. Might give it a try instead of the Bowhole.

For some reason Ranger is a bit underwhelming. I went boomerangs (because I fell in love with them in DQ7 and used them all throughout DQ8) and she's now level 11 but barely doing any notable damage still. She's got an edged boomerang and we're at Bloomingdale.

Also, there's like...no armor for her right now. It's kind of off putting since Bloomingdale has class specific armor for every other class I have right now.

I had the same problems with my Ranger at first, but she got better. I just gave her whatever decent defense dresses were handy (mostly what she was wearing as a MA), a Golden Tiara, and used her to stall enemies with War Cry until she learned some good Boomerang skills. Crosscutter Throw and Power Throw go a long way to making boomerangs useful while you're stuck with crap equipment. Once I got her a Crucerang she did fairly well, and armor comes soon enough.

Now she's Lv43 and obliterating things.

Finished the main story mode last night, not relying on Forbearance spam except on that one boss I mentioned yesterday. Final boss raped me good the first time, then I got him on the rebound. I got lucky: he didn't spam his sleep attack like he did the first time and his ultra-nuke only took out my MC instead of the entire party; he died soon after. Did the first post-game quest (that boss hits really hard... but Knight Watch + Forbearance got me through on the third try, since that's way too good a combo to pass up), and earned the "Exterminator" accolade for apparently beating one of every monster type available "to mortals".

So I got my party last night (all custom characters, with my families names, Priest, Mage, Martial Artist). I found it interesting the game didn't tell me that I was actually in a position to get a party, I only noticed when I walked in the inn to heal myself after soloing for a bit, but that's a tiny gripe at best.

That said, I have to say, this game is so fun. Final Fantasy XIII really poisoned me on JRPG's. I was so disappointed with it, and had been disappointed with so many "sure fire" JRPG's in the past couple years, I was almost done with the genre. So far, DQ9 has really refreshed the genre for me, and it's exciting. Really, I haven't had this much with a JRPG since...DQ8, go figure. My JRPG playing had mostly strayed to the purely nostalgic lately (until inserting DQ9, Chrono Trigger was a main stay in my DS), but this has given me hope that there is still some one making JRPG's that aren't pretentious J-Emo affairs.

I do hope DQ10 goes back to a full size console though (PS3 I would guess?). Not so much because I dislike the DS (I don't), I just want to stretch out on the couch and play Dragon Quest on my big TV.

So I got my party last night (all custom characters, with my families names, Priest, Mage, Martial Artist). I found it interesting the game didn't tell me that I was actually in a position to get a party, I only noticed when I walked in the inn to heal myself after soloing for a bit, but that's a tiny gripe at best.

Patty tells you if you talk to her as soon as the scene in the Stornway inn is over.

I do hope DQ10 goes back to a full size console though (PS3 I would guess?). Not so much because I dislike the DS (I don't), I just want to stretch out on the couch and play Dragon Quest on my big TV.

DQX is going to be on the Wii. Dragon Quest has always gone onto the Market Leader of the time, that's why it went from NES to SNES to PSX to PS2 to DS.

DQX being on the Wii makes me happy...because I already own a Wii. It makes sense from a business standpoint too. It allows SE to focus their FF series on the 360 and PS3 while bringing DQ games to the Wii, giving them full platform exposure on main titles.

I've got good news and bad news about 6th level, That Guy. The good news is that Forbiddance spell allows you to prevent enemies different alignment from entering a consecrated area, which is actually useful! The bad news is that the only other new sixth level spell makes lunch for everybody. Guess which one the party is going to expect you to cast.

DQX being on the Wii makes me happy...because I already own a Wii. It makes sense from a business standpoint too. It allows SE to focus their FF series on fashion and no substance while bringing DQ games to the Wii, giving them full platform exposure on main titles.

Because of the really late edit (I shouldn't walk away from my comp while I'm editing), reposting question:

Also, does any one here use knives? I have a knife user that started out as a thief, then I switched her to mage (I think I did this originally because one of the knife abilities uses MP, but I'm not sure about that). But, while I'm usually big on casters, the limited/expensive ways to recover magic seems to limit me to just having my mage just steal/hope for the insta-kill proc on the assassin's knife until I get to a boss to actually use magic. Not sure what to do with this character.

chrono_traveller on July 2010

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett

Because of the really late edit (I shouldn't walk away from my comp while I'm editing), reposting question:

Also, does any one here use knives? I have a knife user that started out as a thief, then I switched her to mage (I think I did this originally because one of the knife abilities uses MP, but I'm not sure about that). But, while I'm usually big on casters, the limited/expensive ways to recover magic seems to limit me to just having my mage just steal/hope for the insta-kill proc on the assassin's knife until I get to a boss to actually use magic. Not sure what to do with this character.

If you have your Mage use a wand, he steals MP on hit. You don't even need points in the wand skill, just keep a wand around you can switch to mid fight and whack away a couple of times.

I've got good news and bad news about 6th level, That Guy. The good news is that Forbiddance spell allows you to prevent enemies different alignment from entering a consecrated area, which is actually useful! The bad news is that the only other new sixth level spell makes lunch for everybody. Guess which one the party is going to expect you to cast.

Because of the really late edit (I shouldn't walk away from my comp while I'm editing), reposting question:

Also, does any one here use knives? I have a knife user that started out as a thief, then I switched her to mage (I think I did this originally because one of the knife abilities uses MP, but I'm not sure about that). But, while I'm usually big on casters, the limited/expensive ways to recover magic seems to limit me to just having my mage just steal/hope for the insta-kill proc on the assassin's knife until I get to a boss to actually use magic. Not sure what to do with this character.

If you have your Mage use a wand, he steals MP on hit. You don't even need points in the wand skill, just keep a wand around you can switch to mid fight and whack away a couple of times.

I do know about this, and my priest uses this to great avail, but I think that works for me because she only needs to heal maybe every other round and only costs like 5 mp (I think that is what midheal costs), which she can get back in 2-3 whacks of the wand. On the other hand, crackle costs 8 MP (I think?) which usually takes like 4-5 hits to recover that MP, which ends up being rather poor damage on average. And works out that just attacking with the knife using no MP ends up doing more damage (especially when the instakill procs).

I mean, I'll be making someone go wand mage, since he is extremely useful for boss fights. I'm more just interested in what classes people use knives with (if at all)?

chrono_traveller on July 2010

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett

I've not noticed a consistant rise in leeching MP yet (although I sometimes leech 2 MP instead of 1 now) but the amounts, so far, have been usable. It allows me to attack in easier battles and throw spells into the fray on harder ones.

I've got good news and bad news about 6th level, That Guy. The good news is that Forbiddance spell allows you to prevent enemies different alignment from entering a consecrated area, which is actually useful! The bad news is that the only other new sixth level spell makes lunch for everybody. Guess which one the party is going to expect you to cast.

Maxing wands and using wands with 8%+ MP recovery has in no way increased the amount of MP restored per hit.

What's the point of it?

Is the %MP recovery based on the Mage's MP, on the monster's, or on the damage dealt? There's also the fact that you can't gain MP beyond your max, so unless you've cast your mage dry you might not be seeing the full effect.

Wand regen for my mage has been between 1-3 MP per turn. Max wands with a higher MP steal wand still only results in 1-2 MP stolen per hit, when it actually lands. The mage skill that restores MP per turn seems to consistently restore 3 MP per turn.

SO, you can technically restore 5-9 MP per turn pretty consistently when you want to.

Yeah I got wands up to auto recovery but its like some bullshit amount that its pretty pointless.

This is good to know. I almost started down the wand path specifically for this ability. Glad to know it's kind of crap. I'll go a different route with my mage I guess.

Wait is auto recovery useless or the % MP recovery useless or both?

I was thinking the only way % MP recovery would be useful is if my mage is hitting for like 100+ with wands by end game. Maybe it'd be worth it if he had some of the natural +strength from warrior or gladiator? I'm just speculating here. Still in the desert town (Gleeba?) currently.

chrono_traveller on July 2010

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett

Wand regen for my mage has been between 1-3 MP per turn. Max wands with a higher MP steal wand still only results in 1-2 MP stolen per hit, when it actually lands. The mage skill that restores MP per turn seems to consistently restore 3 MP per turn.

SO, you can technically restore 5-9 MP per turn pretty consistently when you want to.

That's not bad at all combined with cheaper spells from Sage. You could get a Multiheal almost every other turn.

I've got good news and bad news about 6th level, That Guy. The good news is that Forbiddance spell allows you to prevent enemies different alignment from entering a consecrated area, which is actually useful! The bad news is that the only other new sixth level spell makes lunch for everybody. Guess which one the party is going to expect you to cast.

I've got good news and bad news about 6th level, That Guy. The good news is that Forbiddance spell allows you to prevent enemies different alignment from entering a consecrated area, which is actually useful! The bad news is that the only other new sixth level spell makes lunch for everybody. Guess which one the party is going to expect you to cast.

I've got good news and bad news about 6th level, That Guy. The good news is that Forbiddance spell allows you to prevent enemies different alignment from entering a consecrated area, which is actually useful! The bad news is that the only other new sixth level spell makes lunch for everybody. Guess which one the party is going to expect you to cast.

I'm sorta camping out at that "dungeon" to the west of Coffin... Coffin-something... There are the occasional Metal Slimes in those hallways, so I'm grinding up a bit before I go back to the Alltrades tower.

Maxing wands and using wands with 8%+ MP recovery has in no way increased the amount of MP restored per hit.

What's the point of it?

Is the %MP recovery based on the Mage's MP, on the monster's, or on the damage dealt?

Yes.

Seriously though, I think it's based on damage dealt, with the caveat that the monster you're attacking must actually have that much MP for you to drain. It seems wildly inconsistent, though; my casters' melee damage doesn't vary that much, but sometimes they'll leech 5-6 MP on a hit, sometimes 11-12.

I'm sorta camping out at that "dungeon" to the west of Coffin... Coffin-something... There are the occasional Metal Slimes in those hallways, so I'm grinding up a bit before I go back to the Alltrades tower.

My advice would be to try and do the armamentalist quest if you haven't done so already while you're grinding the metal slimes since its a bloody pain and you need a fair amount of luck to get it.

Effin' armamentalist quest.

chrono_traveller on July 2010

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett

I'm sorta camping out at that "dungeon" to the west of Coffin... Coffin-something... There are the occasional Metal Slimes in those hallways, so I'm grinding up a bit before I go back to the Alltrades tower.

My advice would be to try and do the armamentalist quest if you haven't done so already while you're grinding the metal slimes since its a bloody pain and you need a fair amount of luck to get it.

Effin' armamentalist quest.

Where do I get this quest? I'm fairly early in the game, everyone is about level 17.